This is a multilocation event that will start at the Fields Institute (222 College Street) and will end at the Lobby of the Robert Gill Theatre, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (Koffler Student Service building, 214 College Street)

The eventInspired by the law of conservation of energy that states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but only transformed, we will use modes of multi-disciplinary performance, which has at its heart the idea of transformation. We can think of various types of performance - artistic, scientific, daily-life, queer, and transitions between life and death - as a mode of operation that counters conventional ideas of fixed states in the material, spiritual and energy-driven universe in which we live, perform, transform. As artists and performers, we see this from a metaphorical and artistic perspective, taking our cues from current thought experiments in quantum mechanics and quantum computing where terms like superposition and entanglement play a vital role in understanding performing operations on data. We might call this creative approach a form of imaginative mathematics/physics, which has fascinated performing artist-scientists across cultures since pre-historic times. We are intrigued by the potential of scientific contributions and provocations offered by mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists.In this context we are also interested in indigenous, modern, post-modern and pre-modern concepts of performed energymatter, including but not limited to the Chinese idea of Qi, and their impact on current practices of critical making and thinking beyond disciplinary boundaries.

Our guests

Karan Singh, Department of Computer Science, University of TorontoLabyrinths and MazesFormat: Interactive presentation and slideshowDescription: Labyrinths cradle millennia of legend and lore in their twisted articulations and are often considered mankind’s first creation born purely of human imagination. A nexus of spirituality, culture, art and science, the origins of these structures is shrouded in the same mystery they symbolize. The organic labyrinths of this presentation are created with curves evolving under the energy and forces of nature, guided by a mix of images, music and words but above all, an artistic hand.

Berna Celikkaya, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies / Digital Dramaturgy Lab, University of TorontoCircling Squares, Squaring Circles. - Vertical and horizontal aesthetical politics in Robert Lepage's recent performancesFormat: photo exhibition and talkDescription: For this mini-exhibition I intend to reproduce several recordable features of Robert Lepage’s plays Playing Cards: Spades (2012) and 887 (2015). Through this a sort of hybrid space will be created in which visitors will be encouraged to think about what is theatrical and what is metatheatrical, what Lepage has created, and what can be re-created of his creation?

Joseph Culpepper and Kerttu Pussinen, scholar- circus artists, National Circus School MontrealIn-Between Circus, Magic and Quantum Mechanics: Visualizing physics in Particle #BFormat: Multi-disciplinary circus show in 10 minutesDescription:While the quantum world accurately explains the very principles that govern our existence, those principles are often invisible during our everyday experience of reality. The proverbial magic of circus is its uncanny ability to demonstrate the possibilities of our physical universe that seem impossible. Particle #B will manipulate audience members’ ideas of space, time and light. By transforming intellectual energy into physical energy, this one-woman show aims to bring the quantum process one step closer to the experience of everyday life.

Joel Ong, Department for Computational Arts, York University.Windward Experiences Connecting Aeolian musical instruments, digital data, and natural environmentsFormat: Visual installation and talkDescription: This series is interested in the way directionality of the elements trace imaginary pathways from which we have come, establishing an emotionally affective connection to our past, present and future. It is inspired by the history of Aeolian musical instruments tracing from the drawings of 18th Century polymath Athanasius Kircher into our computational present where wind is experienced as often as digital data.

Oleg Kisselev, Theatre and film director, actor and educatorOn the subject matter of art and artificial intellect - Psycho-physical actionsFormat: Exercise demonstration and talkDescription: The presentation consisting of theoretical examinations and practical applications will focus on exploring the conditional and unconditional reflexes of creativity, positive and negative impact of technology on freedom of creative mind, and the psychophysical action, algorithm of spontaneous artistic imagination and action.

Nazli Ahktari, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies / Digital Dramaturgy Lab, University of TorontoJackson Pollock's Ice Cream Love in the Age of Global Warming - Painting with dying ice creamFormat: Performative installationDescription: This installation is the sad narrative about three dying ice cream buckets and their transformation into an abstract painting. We will be witness to their dying ritual and later celebrate their new existence in form of an abstract painting

Richard Windeyer, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies / Digital Dramaturgy Lab, University of Toronto, Biomedical Simulation Lab, University of Toronto (Dr. David Steinman, Director), and Perceptual Artifacts Lab, OCADU (Dr. Peter Coppin, Director)Liminal Data, Dissolving Perception. - A software exploring representational exchanges between visual structures and sound waves.Format: exhibition installation and talkDescription: Inspired by the LASER event’s thematic scope this presentation juxtaposes the sonification of two distinct yet thematically linked data sets: blood flow data generated for a Doppler ultrasound simulation, and a digitized version of the three Chinese characters comprising the title of Gao Xingjian’s play, ‘Between Life and Death’.

Myrto Koumarianos, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of TorontoPieces of a dream-in-progress - Fluctuating energies in ancient songsFormat: musical performance and talkDescription: The performance will look into a Greek song and English poems and that address transformation in various ways. They circle around a dreamlike landscape where days are cooked up, object conspire with or against us and invite us to discover the fragments of a dream-in-progress.

Jingjing (Vicki) Zhang, Department for Statistics, University of TorontoHow statisticians describe the patterns of human mortalityFormat: Mini lecture with projectionDescription: The talk will start from the observation of the great English mathematician Benjamin Gompertz's discovery of human mortality pattern in 1829, based on the data he had collected back then. Statisticians see order from chaos, and we believe a probabilistic view of much of the world phenomena. In the case of human mortality, Gompertz was able to discover a startling simple rule out of the thousands of lives he observed. After him many statisticians fine tuned his model or came up with their own formulation to human mortality, and from this probabilistic view of the world, we could postulate the "deterministic" characters of mortality such as life expectancy and a life table that presents the evolution of a population over time.

Julija Pesic, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of TorontoThe Clutches of hypertext. - Notes on the Dictionary of the Kharzars (1984) written and composed by Milorad PavicFormat: Visual installation and talkDescription: Performed through hypertextual references, Dictionary of the Kharzars also represents the concept of never ending story, pointing out to the idea that the reading as intellectual, physical, and emotional act is always a process of transformation of the text through time, space, and culture.

Elizabeth Parke, Jackman Humanities Institute's Digital Humanities Research Network, University of TorontoSong Dong: weather, breathing, and the transition from exhalation, to water, to ice, to evaporationFormat: Lecture

Pekka Sinervo, Department of Physics, University of TorontoTransforming Energy at the Large Hadron ColliderFormat: Mini lecture with projectionDescription: I will show how the kinetic energy of protons coming into collision at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland is transformed through violent collisions into other forms of energy, where ordinary and possibly new forms of matter are created. These collisions result in “energy flow” in the ATLAS detector that we sift to make discoveries.

The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences
222 College Street
toronto,
Ontario M5T 3J1
Canada

Thursday, September 29, 2016 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (EDT)

Organizer

Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous - LASER Talks

LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) is Leonardo/ISAST's international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversations. There are over two dozen LASER Talks world wide including four in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Please visit us online for more information about our programs and opportunities including becoming a LASER host.